I recently finished reading this book called “If God Was a Banker”. The title caught my eye and it also came recommended as a good read. After a long time, here is a book that I simultaneously wanted to and didn’t want to read.
For the uninitiated, it is a book about 2 guys who begin their careers together. One is a “Tam-Brahm” (TB) who has struggled against all the odds one can think of to educate himself and reach where he has. He exudes traditional middle-class hard working values and lives his life by very simple principals. He believes in intuition and will not do anything that’s against what he considers right. His expectations from life are not small; he just has the patience to wait and the grit to fight for his scruples. The other is a slightly full-of-himself (I’m trying to be kind) urban-bred Mr. Know-It-All (KIA) predictably without any scruples. He will do what he needs to get where he has to. He will give up his personal loyalty (to his wife as well) just to get ahead.
The book begins with this Mr.-Know-It-All and talks of some big event which ruined everything. It’s a fairly fast read that comfortably flits between the present and past. I found myself reasonably hooked and wanting to know what happened. To cut a long story short, Mr. KIA and TB, both are pedigreed IIM graduates who join a Global retail bank looking to set up base in India. They get a lucky break together to set up the business.
Predictably, they take different routes to get what they want. Mr. KIA quickly learns the joy of short-cuts and glib talking and the thrill of cheating and lying. Again, predictably, he “loses” in love when the girl he wants falls for someone he believes in unsuitably for society i.e. Mr. TB. He ends up marrying someone he has a fling with and thereafter goes on to continuously cheat on her. He leads double lives with such ease that I actually had goose bumps reading. The author makes it seem so simple – if this is even close to reality (which unfortunately it is), it’s as sad a situation as I could imagine. A wife at home waiting for you and expecting you to be honest and, without blinking an eye, to just lie through all the transgressions I can imagine. To do anything to get that promotion, to make your work you life and to be hedonistic to an extent that is shameful is probably the reality of corporate life but it’s far away from nice.
In contrast, Mr. TB marrying a nice girl who helps him to build the life he never imagined. He gets the career he wanted, he fights all odds and in the end – you got it right, he does triumph (remember the beginning where Mr. KIA had a mishap which makes his life fall apart – “shockingly: his sins catch up with him). It was really predictable but nice and eerie but real - a book of complete contrasts.
The God of the story is a well connected senior banker who is a balance between TB and KIA. He knows where to draw the lines and knows where to pull the strings. He has the answers and knows how to decide. Perhaps that’s what I liked about the book – simple balance and prudence is really the answer.
Hum of the Day
No one enjoys the complete journey, but somewhere we learn the tricks of the trade and we survive. We play the God to our own lives. Unfortunately, there is no rule book. We sort of have to write that ourselves as well.
